Bush: Iraq is Like Vietnam. An Argument Teacher's View

Today in a speech President Bush played the Vietnam card, something he has been staying away from for years. He told his audience that a premature pull out from Iraq would result in the kinds of things that happened in Vietnam after the U.S. pulled out. He said it would result in things like "killing fields (which were in Cambodia) and "boat people." This has not always been Bush's view.

For years, he maintained Iraq and Vietnam had no similarities. In April 2004, he said:

QUESTION: How do you answer the Vietnam comparison?

BUSH: I think the analogy is false. I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops, and sends the wrong message to the enemy. [From Presidential Debates]

Now he wants to use the analogy, but only the part of it that fits his argument. Vietnam was also a 20 year quagmire for the U.S. which cost almost 60,000 American lives.  But, the President does not want us to remember that part. 

I always told my students that analogy is the weakest form of evidence in an argument, but if you use one, you don't get to pick and choose the parts of the analogy that fit your view and disregard the remainder. If you use analogy as evidence in an argument, you are stuck with the whole thing.

Bush also tried to recall WWII, Adolf Hitler, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. These analogies also fail quite spectacularly if you think about it.

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